Simon, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that's an example of an oral tradition Irenaeus was familiar with, not something he actually read in the Gospel of John. In fact, this is a remarkable example of how oral tradition, even as early as in Ireneaus' time, was not entirely reliable and presented already conflicting data. In any case, I don't believe the Scriptures to be open to any interpretation under the sun. That's a favourite red herring of Roman Catholic apologists whose church, coincidentally, hasn't "infallibly" interpreted more than a dozen verses in all of the Bible to this very day.
I'll have to look that one up. I thought it was unique to Irenaeus because he was looking to support his theology of Christ sanctifying all stages of life by living through all of those stages, from infancy to old age. I'll get back to you on that one. Well, as you already know, I certainly don't disagree with you on Roman Catholicism's centuries-long orgy of inventing peculiar novelties! But one of the Romish Church's claims does ring intuitively true: if the Scriptures are, in fact, written with a singular interpretation in mind, why the constant proliferation of divergent sects among the Protestants?
I'd venture to say that there's more than one reason for this phenomenon, the first of them being that most Protestant bodies don't even follow the hermeneutical principle of Sola Scriptura to begin with. Secondly, in the churches within the Magisterial Reformed tradition which wisely retain an ecclesiastical structure and make profitable use of creeds, symbols and canons, there's a remarkable consensus on what the Christian faith is and what the gospel means. As much of a consensus as shown by the universal creeds of the Christian church. The disagreements are to be lamented but in a certain way they're unavoidable since sin abides in us until we die. Such disagreements exist even within Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
"A Protestant who claims to follow Sola Scriptura but doesn't do so in practice is akin to a renegade nun in who claims to follow the Magisterium but is contrary to everything the Roman Church stands for...." ~ Random Quote from Pax Christi
I found the passage in question here. The relevant portions are §4-6. It looks as if Irenaeus was arguing against a younger Christ and he uses scriptural evidence to bolster his claim. By the way, is there a thread on this forum for us to share internet resources? New Advent is surely one of the best.
I'll read it more carefully. Be it as it may, the fact that he uses Scripture alone to try and prove his claim only works in favour of the singularity of Scripture as the source of doctrine for the Christian Church. Actually, I had read somewhere else that the 50 year old Christ was part of the myriad of oral traditions that pervaded the Early Church in the first two centuries. Perhaps my memory is failing me. It is. The Christian Classics Etheral Library is another good one, perhaps you already know it. I'm not sure if there's a thread about Christian internet resources but you can create one and ask the moderator to make it a sticky.